Smyrna times., 1887-08-17
A Railroad Horror.
ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN DEAD.

| n I6dIlIOdu IlOFFOFt
ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN DEAD.
An excursion train of fifteen coaches
carrying $50 passengers and drawn by
two locomotives, was wreck ed at mid
night Wednesday by the collapse of a
burning bridge at Chatsworth, six
miles east of Forest, ILL.,, on the Toledo,
Peoria and Western Railroad. One
locomotive, six passenger coaches and
three baggage cars went through. The
SIX sleeping coaches remained on the
trucks, The passenger coaches were
telescOped. One hundred and eigh-
teen dead were taken out, and four
hundred persons were injured. The
train was bound for Niagara Falls, and
the majority the excursionists came
from Peoria, ILL.,, although there were
some from Canton, Ell PasO, Washing.
ton and other stations on the road.
The dead and wounded were plunder-
ed in such systematic manner as to
suggest that the bridge had been delib-
erately set on fire with that object in
view.
THE BURNING BRIDGE.
Three miles east OF Chatsworlh is a
little slough, and where the railroad
crosses a dry run about 10 feet dcep
and 10 feet wide. Over this was stretch
ed an ordinary wooden trestle bridge.
and as the excursion train came thnn-
dering down on it, what WAS the hor-
"Or ofthe engineer on the front engine
when he saw that the bridge was afire?
Right up before his eyes leaped the
bright flames, and the next Instant he
was among them. There was no
chance to stop. Had there been warn
ing it would have taken half a mile to
stop. The train was within 100 wards
OF the red-tOngued messengers of death
before they flashed their fatal signals
into the engineers face. But he
passed over in salty, the first engine
keeping the rails. As it went over the
bridge fell beneath i, and it could only
have been the terrific speed of the
train which saved the lives of the en-
gineer and his fireman.
THE WRECK.
But the next engine went down, and
car crashed into car, coaches piled one
on top of another, and in the twinkling
ofan eye nearly 100 people found instant
death, and so more were SO hurt thev
could not live. AS for the wounded
they were everywhere. Only the
sleeping coaches escaped, and as the
startled halfdressed passengers came
tumbling out of them they found such
a scene of death as is rarely witnessed,
and such work to do that it seemed as
if human hands were utterly incapable.
1t lacked but five minutes of midnight.
Down in the ditch lay the second engi-
neer. Engineer McClintock. dead and
Fireman Applegate badly injured. On
top were piled the three baggage cars.
one on top of another, like a child's
card house after he had swept it with
his hand. Then came the six dav
coaches. They were telescoped, and
three of them were pressed into Just
space enough for one. The second car
had mounted off its trucks. crashed
through the woodwork of it, crushing
the woodwork aside like tindcr, and
lay there resting on the tops of the
seats, while every passenger in
the front car was lying dead or
dying underneath Out of that car
but four people came alive. On top of
the second car lay the third, and
its bottom was smeared with the blood
of its victims. The other three cars
were not so badly crushed, but they
were broken and twisted in every con-
ceivable way, and every crushed tim
Der and beam represented a crushed
human frame and a broken bone. In
stantly the air was filled with the cries
of the wounded and the shrieks
of those about to die. The
grOans of men and the screams of
women united made an appalling
sound, and above all could be heard
the agOnizing cries of little children as
in some instances they lay pinned
alongside their dead parents.
FIGHTING FIRE.
And there was another terrible dan
ger yet to be met The bridge was
still burning, and the wrecked cars
were lying on the fercely burning en-
bers. Everywhere in the wreck were
wounded and unhurt men, women and
children whose lives could be saved if
they could be gotten out, but whose
death was certain if the twisted wood
of the broken cars caught fire. And
to fight the fire there was not drop of
water and only some fifty able-bodied
men, who still had presence of mind
and nerve enough to do their duty.
The only light was the light of the
burning bridge; with so much of its aid
the fifty men went to work to fight the
flames. For four hours they fought
like fends, and for four hours the vic
tory hung in the balance. Earth was
the only weapon with which the fire
could be fought, and so the attempt
was made to smother it out. There
was no pick or shovel to dig it up, no
baskets or barrOws to carry it, and so
desperate were they that they dug
their fingers down into the earth,
which long drought had baked almost
as hard as stone, and heaped the pre-
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